EA and Maxis' claim that it would take "significant engineering work" to make a workable offline version of SimCity took another hit today. Hackers have released modding tools that disable the game's periodic server checks without breaking the simulation. The tools also unlock other features not in the final game.

reddit is abuzz with news and guides for installing the SimCityPak, a downloadable package of files that lets players edit many elements of the UI and underlying game logic. The tools aren't incredibly user-friendly for the time being, but those with some Javascript experience and patience to learn can do things like disable the online connectivity requirement, fix the "fudged" population display, and even affect how the basic simulation works in some ways.

Hackers are still poring through the code to see what kinds of new features and gameplay can be unlocked (including, potentially, the holy grail of increased city size limits), but one of the most exciting discoveries so far has been a way to easily uncover the developers' debug mode. This mode allows for many features that players have been asking for in the consumer version of the game, including the ability to build highways through city limits and in the regional "dead space" between cities. These changes will apparently stay valid in the wider region after the city is synced to EA's central servers, though other users' cities will not see edits made to the regional landscape.

The debug menus also include references to terraforming tools, such as coastline and waterway building, which are currently disabled even in a hacked commercial copy of the game. Options for editing airplane flight paths, creating new docking points for ships, and creating new city and "great works" sites are also alluded to.

Ars was able to download and install a package file enabling this mode in less than a minute. For those who don't want to go through the hacking hassle, this YouTube video quickly shows how the debug mode works in practice. Another video shows a player using edited package files to bulldoze and cause disasters in other players' cities in the region (though the poster claims this was done without server syncing, to prevent any permanent harm from being done).

Last year, SimCity Creative and Art Director Ocean Quigley said the game was being "built to be moddable" at a GDC panel. He reaffirmed that stance in a tweet just last month, indicating modded package files would be allowed (but maybe not directly supported) once the game was released. Given the potential for menace on public servers being quickly unlocked by players, however, this stance may not last.

It's been rather incredible watching the gaming community's reaction to SimCity's launch over the last week and a half, and it's impressive to see that community taking action to try to fix the myriad disappointments in the game as it was released. We can't wait to see what other interesting modifications to the game the community will be able to uncover in the coming weeks and months.

It would be really fantastic if they could get the city size limits increased. I'm opposed to the DRM nonsense, but I might still buy the game if I can play it like I used to play Sim City 4. The city size limit has actually been the primary thing keeping me away, although I'm also loathe to give EA my money after everything they've pulled.

This leads me to believe that what others have indicated, that the limits are entirely artificial and that they planned to turn off limits in DLC later on, is true. In which case, this is a solid answer by the crackers: "Don't break your game on purpose, because we'll unbreak it and make that version free."

Sadly, EA will be patching this out and they have a reasonable excuse to do so: It allows a player to overwrite or destroy a neighboring city and when the player syncs with the server it will save that over whatever was there before.

Shame, really, as this was an otherwise promising step in the right direction of opening up this game into what it should have included from the start: single-player offline play with an unconstrained building area.

I can deal with the fudged population and the sims not really being individuals, but the city size is killing me, and I wasn't even that into Sim City 4 so I don't have much of a point of reference.

I've got enough industry going to make 4,000,000 a month in trade, but in order to do that I have to have 2-3 maxed out water plants, 2-3 maxed out sewer plants, one giant friggin nuke reactor and of course the trade depots. that leaves about half my city which is entirely residential. They're very happy, but I'm at like 100,000 sims and, based on my traffic, looks like I can't add any more. Oh... I also have 2 maxed out bus terminals, a ferry, a train station, and maxed street cars (Taking up MORE space) that don't alleviate the traffic.

This leads me to believe that what others have indicated, that the limits are entirely artificial and that they planned to turn off limits in DLC later on, is true. In which case, this is a solid answer by the crackers: "Don't break your game on purpose, because we'll unbreak it and make that version free."

I would not be at all surprised if the very first DLC is Sim City: Big Cities!

So now my difficult decision is... Should I buy the game if it is able to be played offline (giving EA my hard earned money) or take EA's bull to indicate that I should never give them my money again. Maybe it isn't a difficult decision.

So now my difficult decision is... Should I buy the game if it is able to be played offline (giving EA my hard earned money) or take EA's bull to indicate that I should never give them my money again. Maybe it isn't a difficult decision.

Consider as well the possibility of EA possibly permanently banning any EA/Origin accounts for players doing this.

EA and Maxis' claim that it would take "significant engineering work" to make a workable offline version of SimCity took another hit today. Hackers have released modding tools that disable the game's periodic server checks without breaking the simulation. The tools also unlock other features not in the final game.

Can we now get all the dimwits that kept telling us SimCity was just a different game from every other SimCity game of the past, such that "offline single player" wasn't possible, nor was it a form of DRM, to shut the hell up?

Does saving still require an active internet connection? I'm going to guess we're no where near being able to do arbitrary saves, like in every other sim city game ever made.

Yes, but here's where it gets Hi-larious. You can construct outside the designated zone and even after hours of playing offline, go back online, and it will save your games and all it's changes. Even those changes made outside the zone.

So now my difficult decision is... Should I buy the game if it is able to be played offline (giving EA my hard earned money) or take EA's bull to indicate that I should never give them my money again. Maybe it isn't a difficult decision.

Honestly, if they were able to so quickly add offline single-player, how long do you think it will be for someone to patch out the DRM completely and release a torrent of "SimCity: Offline Edition"?

I don't know if I would call EA's failure 'epic', but it certainly is an entertaining diversion while I wait for Judge Wright to generate some more Prenda news for us.

The real question is, what will EA do now? I suspect it will be the opposite of what they should - namely threaten to ban people who use this patch by cancelling their Origin accounts or issue an update to disable this mod.

I for one, have decided to take a stand and refuse to send EA money for this game (which is not worth my money).

Finally, I remain in admiration of the modding community. It was the modding community that made SC4 from a barely player, still buggy mess after EA abandoned it shortly after Rush Hour's release to what it is today.

I can deal with the fudged population and the sims not really being individuals, but the city size is killing me...Traffic and City Size are my biggest complaints.

They are directly related. The "lemming agent" system they use would break down even more than it does now if the city sizes were bigger. They have to add some actual intelligence to the simulation before they can let you make the cities bigger, or it would just be gridlock all the time unless you build bizarre cities that cater to homeless lemmings.

Regarding the hidden moddabilty, I bet that higher-ups decided that leaving room for Sims-style expansions was more important than giving players everything they wanted off the bat. Their big problem is that unlike The Sims, which always had that expansion pack mentality, they'd have to take away features we were already used to in order offer them back with a price tag attached.

I can deal with the fudged population and the sims not really being individuals, but the city size is killing me...Traffic and City Size are my biggest complaints.

They are directly related. The "lemming agent" system they use would break down even more than it does now if the city sizes were bigger. They have to add some actual intelligence to the simulation before they can let you make the cities bigger, or it would just be gridlock all the time unless you build bizarre cities that cater to homeless lemmings.

Maybe it is the cynic in me but I think at this very moment there is an EA attorney drafting a DMCA takedown for any hint on how to enable the Offline mode. The argument will be that you are bypassing the server communications which are needed to prevent piracy. I hope I'm wrong, I just wouldn't be surprised.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area.